MILWAUKEE â" Neil Walker wanted the Pittsburgh Pirates to get off to a better start after the All-Star break.
A.J. Burnett held off the Brewers for five innings before giving up four runs in the sixth and Milwaukee beat the Pirates 4-1 on Sunday.
Walker didnât fault Burnett, but rather poor defense.
âThe way I see it, we gave them two games to be honest with you,â Walker said. âWe didnât play good defense today. We didnât execute on Friday.â
The Brewers opened the three-game series against the Pirates with a 10-7 win on Friday night.
âYou have to tip your cap to how they pitched, especially today,â Walker said. âThis is a tough place for us to play regardless, tough place for anybody to play.â
Yovani Gallardo (8-6) struck out a career-high 14 in seven innings.
Burnett (10-3) had his career-high nine-game winning streak ended.
âThings happen. Itâs baseball,â he said. âItâs not from a lack of effort. These guys try as hard as they can out there. It just didnât go our way.â
It did go the Piratesâ way early as Burnett stranded seven runners in scoring position through five innings, but then Milwaukee pushed across four runs on four hits and one error in the sixth.
Nyjer Morgan singled. Ryan Braun singled to right fielder Garrett Jones, whose throw sailed passed the cutoff man and allowed Morgan to score. Braun went to third on the play and scored on Aramis Ramirezâs RBI single.
Ramirez stole second as Corey Hart struck out. Ramirez scored on Rickie Weeksâ double, who then scored on Maldonadoâs third hit of the game.
âWe didnât defend very well behind him (Burnett) which complicated it,â Hurdle said. âThe throw and the play at third, those are plays we got to make. We didnât handle the inning very well. A.J. pitched a very, very good ball game today.â
Burnett allowed four runs and nine hits and struck out seven in seven innings.
The one bright spot continued to be Andrew McCutchen, who homered off Gallardo in the fourth.
McCutchen, who had three of the Piratesâ five hits, hit his 21st homer and fifth in the past four games. He also had two singles. He is batting .560 (28 for 50) with seven homers, 19 runs scored and 16 RBIs in past 12 games and leads the majors with a .371 average.
âHe is as good a player as there is in the league,â Hurdle said. âHe is playing at an elite level, all across the board. He has earned his name being in those (MVP) conversations at this point. But it is still early. Weâve all got work to do.â
McCutchen made an impression on Gallardo, too.
âHeâs on fire,â Gallardo said. âHeâs swinging the bat very well. That home run was a pretty good pitch. It was on the outside part of the plate.â
Gallardo said that the game and whole series had playoff intensity.
âItâs really like win or go home every game,â Gallardo said. âWe all know the nine games we have here, the next series with the Cardinals, then the Reds. Theyâre very important.â
Milwaukee took two of three from the Pirates. St. Louis comes in for three and then the homestand ends with three against the Reds.
Gallardo struck out two in every inning except the sixth when he fanned just one and the side in the seventh.
âCommand was probably the best Iâve had all year,â he said. âThat really helped.â
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle felt that the team took itself out of the game against Gallardo.
âWe got in a bad rut here, swinging the bat as far as striking out,â Hurdle said. âGallardo was very good today. We were susceptible to a lot of things he was doing. He had a very sharp breaking ball.â
Gallardo won consecutive starts for the second time this season.
Martin Maldonado went 3 for 4 with one RBI for Milwaukee.
John Axford pitched the ninth for his 16th save.
NOTES: Walker extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single in the first. ... The Pirates are 12-30 when scoring less than four runs in a game. ... The Pirates have gone deep in six straight games. ... The Pirates had won eight of their last nine games when Casey McGehee had at least one RBI. He went 0 for 4 on Sunday.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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